Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Meme Me Interview

I had a lot of fun reading Thistle’s responses to some interview questions that are a type of meme going around the internet. Since Thistle is one of the first bloggers I met, and she reads and comments on every post I put up, I figured she would have some fun and make me think questions. And she did. A couple tough ones (my actual response was holy fucking shit) but here we go…………..

1. At what age did you start surfing and what would be your ultimate surf destination (other than Hawaii)? Why?

Well, first of all, I don’t “surf” per say, I body board. Over here a lot of people lump that into “surfing.” I can long board, but I’m not any good at all at that. Several of my girlfriends took up long boarding about ten years ago, when they approached their forties and when their sons started learning to surf. I started to learn along with them, but I didn’t get far. I hated the board hitting me when I fell off, I pearled nearly every time. Plus, my friends mostly live in town and surf in Waikiki, long boarders haven. I live on the west side of Oahu with bigger waves that can do more damage.

I’ve been catching waves in some way since I was a child. Our family vacations when I was little were at Carpintaria Beach, where we rode canvas rafts and caught waves all day long. Then we moved to Malibu where we body surfed and continued to ride rafts. I played on body boards with my kids over here when they were little. When my son started surfing seriously, about eight years ago, my husband bought me a body board that is the real thing and not from a toy store. I loved going out, great exercise and you don’t even feel like you are exercising. I haven’t been going out much since the cancer incident. I was too weak from chemo for awhile and worried about my breath. Then, by the time I was stronger, son had become fairly good and goes mostly to the North Shore and out in waves that are too big for me. I hope to buy a helmet camera like this (the video) and strap it on, go out, and post videos of me in waves for my blog.
I have little desire to take a surf vacation. I’d love to go to Bali, but other than that I crave vacations that offer different experiences than here. New York. Road trips across the desert. Snow and ski trips. Europe, India, Africa, Asia.

2. When you were a little girl, what did you imagine would be your 'career'? If you were able to magically change careers now and be transformed into a wildly successful and fully trained anything-other-than-a-teacher...What would you be?

When I was a young girl, I thought I’d grow up to be a horse trainer. I lived for getting to the stables where we kept our two horses.

If I could “magically change careers now and be transformed into a wildly successful and fully trained anything-other-than-a-teacher” I would be a writer, screenwriter, and movie director.

3. Who is the one person (alive or dead) you would like to have 3 hours to have coffee and chat with, and what are the most important things you would want to talk about?

At THIS moment I would say Barack Obama. I would like to discuss public education, Hawaii connections, his writing processes, and where ever else the conversation went. Oh, and I would mention that when he works on the economy, to make sure credit card companies stop offering my nineteen year old lives at home goes to college full time and works 10 hours a week daughter a platinum credit card.

4. What is the one thing, either personal or global, that you would like to have the 'finger of God' ability to fix right this minute?

This is the question that made me curse Thistle through the internets. ONE THING? That is SO hard for me that I am going to cheat, a little, and pick out one personal and one global. For personal, I would like an opportunity to live in a better location on the island. Like be able to afford to rent a house and rent out ours. Where we live is a bit rough, my kids have never liked it, my friends don’t live close by…. I’d like to live somewhere that my kids did not have to drive so far everyday and I could hang with my friends without having to make elaborate plans.

Global…I’m going to go with an immediate shift to clean energy usage and non-dependence on oil. I’m not savvy enough to understand the full effect of this, but I would hope this would positively influence a lot of the other problems that Thistle didn’t give me the finger for.

5. How did you meet Mr. Psuedo and was it love at first site? And tell us about the wedding, was it a low-key beach affair or were you a Bridezilla?

I met Mr. Pseudo at a restaurant job at a place called Bobby McGee’s. It was the wildest place in the world to work in Waikiki back in the eighties. Most of our close friends today come from this place and time of employment. The servers all dressed in costumes and did a lot of schtick at the tables. Mr. Pseudo was “Joe Paniolo” and wore a cowboy costume. I’ve always had a thing for cowboys (my dad’s family was from Texas/ plus the horse thing in my younger days). Mr. Pseudo is a handsome guy and really looked good in that costume. I was a cocktail waitress in the adjoining nightclub and wore the French maid costume. Mr. Psuedo says it was love at first sight. For me, I’d say it was lust. I think we had noticed each other, but the night we first felt the zing and the zap was a night we both had gotten off work and were hanging out in the club. My two college roommates (who also worked there) and I had entered the “tight jeans dance off contest.” We were pretty sassy back then and figured one of us would win the prize, a gift certificate to another restaurant and we would all go out to eat (none of us really cooked back then). Weren’t we surprised when Mr. Pseudo swept the crowd into a frenzy (yes, it was male and female contest). Mr Pseudo is an excellent dancer, has the best butt ever, and worked those jeans like nobody’s business. He took first place, I took second, we danced and hung out together the rest of the night, and had our first official date a few days later.

I had no intention of ever getting married due to a horrible view of marriage caused by a childhood with parents who tortured each other in both marriage and divorce court. I was an undergrad at UH when I started dating Mr. Pseudo and had vague plans of taking off and traveling after I graduated, then going to grad school, then obscure plans of either writing for a magazine like Time or Newsweek ( I was a Poly Sci major/English minor with grandiose ideas) or applying to work in foreign embassies . By the time I was a senior at UH, Mr. Pseudo and I were happily living together and things were going well. I was applying for a scholarship to Sophia University in Japan in my last semester and I almost got it, I was one of three finalists. Mr. Psuedo drove me to the interview. Later he told me he spent the whole time while he was waiting praying that I would not get it. And I didn’t. Long story short. Eventually he sold me on the idea of marriage and staying in Hawaii.

We got married in Lake Tahoe. Small wedding, only about twenty close friends and family. Neither of our parents were going to help us out financially (neither are also the babysitting type – we’ve always been on our own). But Mr. Pseudo has a huge extended family here and we have a lot of friends. We could not afford to throw a wedding for all these people and we love traveling. So instead of a big wedding, we married in Tahoe and took a month long road trip through northern California all the way to Mexico. It wasn’t quite an elopement, we told people we were going to get married, and it turned out my family, his grandma and sister, and some of our friends wanted to come. It was a blast. We all stayed in the same hotel. Lots of people went skiing the day before and the day after. We had a small reception in our hotel suite, then the entire party went downstairs and gambled Our wedding was very lucky and most everyone won money that night. My older sister, who was married and had two children, her husband won enough money at the craps table to pay for their whole trip plus spending money.

And there you go.

And now the rules for this little meme…which is a challenging one by the way cos you just don’t know what’s coming your way….

If you want to participate…

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

32 comments:

Debbie said...

Great answers. I love the one thing you would change globally and your love story is great.

Kristan said...

I don't do memes but omg I LOVE your #5!! What a fabulous story. :)

I wish everyone could find that kind of fun and happiness.

Anonymous said...

I got a set of questions from my friend Jason, but for the life of me I can't think of the answer to ONE of them. He asked some tough questions. Loved reading this though! It's always fun to hear how people met their significant other .....

Anonymous said...

Great Job! And excellent choice to pick one global and one personal...

but the Mr Psuedo Love story..you're like the king and queen of dancing in tight jeans!...You were obviously meant to be together and what a lovely wedding plan(my cousin did the same thing, going to Vegas...his bride was shy and didn't want the big church wedding)

Lovely...you did me proud!!

Mama Dawg said...

Interview me, please! I have a feeling you'd have GREAT questions!

Pancake said...

This is GREAT! I love your shake the booty like no other hubby!!! What a great story!!!

And please, if you ever get Obamas ear, PLEASE for all the moms of college kids, get him to stop that endless money to student CC things!!!

Pseudo said...

Thanks everyone. Mr Psuedo and I met in 1986. He still ooks good in his jeans, me, not so much. Why is gravity harder on peple who pump estrogen through their veins??

Mama - I need to get ready for work not, but will email you tonight!!

Pseudo said...

Pam - I don't like appearing ignorant in my own comment thread...but what is student CC things?

Casey said...

Great answers (and questions too!). I can't believe the story about how you guys met, it sounds like some sort of cool 80's movie.
Man, did I fall for the credit card scam BIG TIME. I spent the first two years out of college paying off the credit card debt that I had accrued.

Vic said...

I'm game - interview me (just a little frightened...)

LOVED the story of how you and your husband met. I smiled all the way to the end. :)

steenky bee said...

I love, love, love the story of how you two met. Ahhhhh!

Pseudo said...

Oops, I get it. CC= credit cards, as in all students, not just my daughter. Of course, that is what I really meant. It needs to be like back in tehe day where they really check out your credit worthiness. Personally, I think people who want credit should research the best deals and apply. I hate getting snail mail or email soliciting me for credit cards.

Jack said...

That was awesome! I loved all of your answers. I think Thistle missed her calling...

Tricia said...

First, how can Thistle complain that her blog buddies give her hard questions when she returned the favor!

This was a great interview, and I love all the details you included and peeks into your psyche/life.

Ann Imig said...

PHST,

So cool to know more about you. I agree--the cowboy/french maid story is SMOKIN'

I'm beyond impress that you body board, too.

Ann

Pseudo said...

Yeah, way back when, we were kind of hot. I wish we still had those costumes....

Sunny said...

I wanted to be a horse trainer in the childhood, too.

And could you interview me, please? :)

David said...

This was a great read indeed. I enjoyed all of it.
Thanks

Just B said...

When I first moved to Hawaii in the early 80s the drinking age was 18 and my friends and I would sneak into Bobby McGees every weekend (they weren't too serious about carding back in the day). Loved, loved the story of how you met Mr. Pseudo!! Brought back a lot of very happy memories;-)

Truly terrific answers to some great questions.

Pseudo said...

I started workign at Bobby McGee's in 1982, when the drinking age was 18.

Michele said...

So can we see photos of Mr. Pseudo's butt? I'm shallow like that. LOL!

Nice answer for #4. That was a hard one.

Beth said...

I loved your answers. You've did a great job describing your life. Neat to know something about you.

Robin said...

That is the best and most interesting meme I've read in ages and I feel like we are sitting here having coffee and you are just telling me the story of your life. And now of course I am going to have to go to Thistle's blog and then backward to the person who interviewed her and so on and so on.

(If you didn't already have your work cut out for you with the other three volunteers I would say interview me too).

Joanie said...

Loved your wedding story! And these memes are fun! Go ahead and ask away!

♥ Braja said...

I loved that Pseudo...though I don't have time to do it now :) Oh, poor you...sinuses? I did a treatment last night with the Ayurvedic doctor that is for sinuses....intense. I'll write about it tomorrow....

Lori said...

Thistle sure came up with great questions and what great answers you have! Love the story about how you and the Mr hooked up.

Unknown said...

Barack Obama...definitely.

Smart Mouth Broad said...

This has been such a great way to get to know our favorite bloggers! I love your blog!

Anonymous said...

Great questions and great answers. Got me thinking about my own answers. Great answer to the global one! I think that's a really difficult question, but a really good one. Absolutely loved the story of you and Mr Pseudo. By the way the education system here is long overdue for almost a complete overhaul I think.

Clix said...

Wuhu! Thanks for stopping by Epic Adventures. :D Fascinating meme and fun answers!

Interview me?

creative kerfuffle said...

i love getting to know people like this! your answers were interesting and entertaining. love how you and the mr. met. that should so be an 80s movie! ohhh, new question---which 80s actor would play you and your hubs?? : )

Clix said...

Oh! I'm uncomfortableadventures at yahoo